Preds get pick-up from strong PK work

As important as it was for the Preds to score a critical power-play goal in Thursday’s 2-0 win over Chicago, an even more impressive sign for the team was the outstanding penalty-killing work that went on.

The Preds have seemingly forever struggled on the power play, but a reliable penalty kill has been one of the franchise strengths over the years.

So you know there had to be some concern heading into Thursday’s contest, when the Preds began the night with the league’s 27th-best penalty kill (73 percent success rate). But they successfully turned away five Chicago power plays – even managing a short-handed empty-net goal during a final power play on Patric Hornqvist.

“It was really strong tonight,” Preds goalie Pekka Rinne said of the penalty kill. “We’ve been struggling with that and usually with Nashville, it’s our strength. We have to get that going and be better at the penalty kill because it’s a huge part of our game. We’re not a team that’s going to score five or six goals in a game.’’

Some other points of interest from the Thursday win:

It was Jerred Smithson, he of the slick toe-drag goal on Wednesday, that stepped up to play on an offensive line in place of injured Martin Erat on Thursday. Smithson spent much of the evening on a line with Mike Santorelli and Joel Ward. Cal O’Reilly spent much of his night on the fourth line, with Marcel Goc and Wade Belak.

Francis Bouillon picked up his first point of the season, and he did so on the power play, sending a nice crossing pass that Ward redirected behind Huet. Bouillon offered an opinion as to why the power play seems to be coming to life a bit in the last couple games. “It’s always difficult when you get new players at the start of season because everyone doesn’t know each other,’’ he said. “The last two days we’ve been much better You can see that guys … are starting to recognize where people are.”

Hornqvist was whistled for three minor penalties – tripping in the first period, holding in the second and goalie interference late in the third. Upon further review, the third penalty looked to be quite an acting performance by Chicago goalie Cristobal Huet.

For the second straight game since returning from injury, defenseman Dan Hamhuis was paired primarily with Cody Franson. Prior to the injury, Hamhuis had been linked primarily with Kevin Klein. Klein and Bouillon have both averaged more ice time than Hamhuis over the past two contests.